3 86 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Experimental proofs of the efficiency of these methods are also 

 forthcoming. Among them, perhaps, none are more convincing 



Pig. 1. — Age, Six Months. 



Fig. 2.— Age, Eighteen Months. 



than the results secured in the modern training schools for idiots, 

 in which difficult field the late Dr. Edward Se'guin, of New York, 



distinguished himself not 

 only as an investigator of 

 remarkable insight and 

 originality, but as a hu- 

 manitarian of a high order. 

 At the meeting of the 

 British Association in 1879, 

 Dr. Se'guin read a paper en- 

 titled " The Training of an 

 Idiotic Hand," * in which 

 are given the details of his 

 developmental method of 

 teaching in the case of an 

 idiot boy. The training de- 

 scribed was applied mainly 

 to the hands, over which the 

 feeble will of the child had 

 almost no control. He was 

 unable to put either his fin- 

 gers or hands in any given 

 required attitude, although 

 movements of great rapid- 

 ity and considerable force were involuntarily executed, mainly 

 from the wrist. The sense of touch was also almost wholly want- 



* See "Archives of Medicine," October, 1879. 



Fig. 3. — Age, Seven Years. 



